Anti-Bullying Task Force formed

Yuma County now has an Anti-Bullying Task Force, thanks to the Regional Center for Border Health, Inc. (RCBH) which has partnered with other city, school and county officials in an effort to eliminate the issue locally.

“We have identified that bullying is an issue in Yuma County and in our schools — it's happening, it's real,” said Amanda Aguirre, task force member and RCBH president and CEO, at a press conference on Thursday.

“Our kids are suffering and are being exposed to some of that violence in our schools. We want to commit to our residents and the families and our children in Yuma County that we're going to do everything we can to stop bullying in schools and in the streets of our cities, in our communities and in our neighborhoods.”

After hearing a story of how her 7-year-old grandniece was being bullied at school, Aguirre said that she started to hear other people's stories and realized how necessary a committee like this was.

“In many instances, kids don't talk about it — they are suffering in silence,” Aguirre said. “We are determined to do something about that by making sure our schools are safe and that our children are not afraid to go to school.”

Mark Hessinger, Yuma deputy county attorney of the Juvenile Court Division, said that he believes that bullying hasn't necessarily increased, but he said that the consequences of bullying have been magnified by technology.

“Ten years ago if a kid was bullied, maybe a few kids knew about it, but now, today, someone takes a cellphone video and puts it on YouTube. That's why there's such a [large amount] of people attempting or even committing suicide because the humiliation factor is magnified exponentially.”

Aguirre commented that the task force plans to form “action groups” in Yuma, Wellton and San Luis. One has already been formed in Somerton to engage the community, raise awareness of the issue and allow parents and children to voice their concerns. Action groups will be made up of law enforcement, elected officials, school staff and teachers, family members and parents and children.

Aguirre noted that while there are some programs that currently exist to combat bullying locally, the group is looking to combine those resources so that they can ultimately be more effective.

YPD Chief of Police John Lekan agreed with Aguirre and said, “We have school resource officers in every one of our middle schools and in our high schools ... ‘Bullying' is not necessarily a new term, anti-bullying campaigns are out there and our officers are trained in the recognition of that and they've dealt with these things in our schools before ... We're trying to maximize this, refocus this, bring the resources together in a collaborative effort. Our officers are only one in sometimes a high school of 1,500 students ... There's so much more we can do to bring attention to this and reduce it because really our ultimate goal is to make bullying go away. Is that realistic? No. But we feel ... that through collaboration we can reduce this dramatically.”

Lekan added that he realizes that it is going to take time before they are able to see results from this initiative because they are going to have to discuss these issues with all the layers of people that students come into contact with daily.

“It's not going to happen overnight but if we continue working at it we can make some positive, constructive improvements in students' lives,” Aguirre added.

Other task force members include Yuma County School Superintendent Tom Tyree, Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden, YCSO spokesman Capt. Eben Bratcher, YCSO Maj. Leon Wilmot, Yuma Union High School District Superintendent Toni Badone, YUHSD Advanced Placement Incentive Program director Frank Nunez, Yuma County Supervisor Lenore Stuart, Yuma City Councilman Jerry Stuart, Yuma County Supervisor Russell McCloud, Yuma County Attorney Jon Smith, Cocopah Tribal Council member Carlos Pereyra, Wellton Town Council member Alex Bejarano and Yuma City Council member Cody Beeson.

The task force plans to meet every other month, or as needed, Aguirre concluded.

For more information about how to get involved with local action groups, contact Bejarano, who is also the community liaison and director of public relations at RCBH, at 627-9222.

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.